The Old Grande Hotel

The old Grande Hotel stood in the centre of Salisbury on First Street until it was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a bank.

This was my first home in the country - in fact in Africa.

My room was on the First Street side, right next to the fourth pillar along the first floor. My room had bed with a mosquito net and was painted white. All the linen was spotlessly white. The door leading to the first floor balcony was painted white and the top section was open with mosquito netting over the open section.

It was October 1960 and hot. When I retired for the night I would close the door but was careful to lock it well. Each morning I would wake to find the door wide open! On some evenings I would hear sobbing coming from the balcony - I looked out onto the balcony on a number of occasions thinking there might be someone in distress on an adjoining balcony - nothing - no one at all. When I stepped onto the balcony the sobbing stopped.

Was the Grande Hotel haunted - I am uncertain. I never felt any feeling of fear - even though I was in Africa first the first time and staying in a room with a door I could not keep locked and closed!

Ghosts galore

This is a copy of an article that appeared in the Herald in October 1980 and refers to my father and my husband and their 'ghost hunting'. I think it was written by Colin Neilson.

Interesting stuff!

" The telephone grew red hot. One little mention in this column (Cabbages and Kings) about the ghosts and the pubic rang us asking the two psychic researchers I mentioned for help.

There was a white woman possessed by an evil spirit. There was a black family who heard heavy boxes Being moved round their house at night. Some young policemen living in a mess found their house definitely haunted.

The two investigators were astounded at the response. Several were desperate. There were people genuinely frightened asking "How much do you charge?" The answer, of course, was nothing.

Some callers' troubles were not psychic but psychological. One Harare man had vivid dreams of being chased by someone carrying an axe. He was told that his problem could probably be dealt with by a nyanga.

Said Leonard, one of the two investigators, "We have enough haunted houses and ghosts to deal with for the next two months. There is a strict code of ethics for psychic investigators."

"Names, addresses and case histories are kept secret. Often very personal details emerge. Sometimes it is the evil thinking a person has generated that brings about strange happenings"

In other instances, such as poltertgiets and similar violent behaviour, it is energy generated by young persons entering puberty that causes articles to break or doors to slam or mischievous happenings.

Often ghosts could be laid but in certain instances an exorcism had en carried out by a priest or minister of religion only to find out that it reappeared. The person who conducted the exorcism needed more than just religious training.

Several African men rang up saying they were not personally troubled but were extremely interested and would like to give help. Leonard said that he would form a committee of people ho could assist the public.

He said he had also had calls from cranks who quoted the Bible and had told him not to dabble with evil spirits. He said he and his fellow investigator were aware of what they are tackling and understood the dangers involved.

He and his friend, a psychic healer (my husband) went to two houses on Saturday and another on Sunday.

There was one case of what appeared to be vampire possession. An African woman said that after the lights were put out at her home there were sounds of a ball bouncing on the ceiling.

Many of the callers said they were so pleased to find someone with whom they could discuss their fears and frightening experiences, witch so many before had casually dismissed as imagination or too much drink.

Leonard said that many so-called psychic happenings had be proved to be someone jumping to conclusions.

One phenomenon that several callers mentioned was a scary sensation of getting into bed and feeling that another invisible person was doing the same. Leonard said that 60% of the calls he received were from Africans.

What happened to Dr Gombera?

Dr Gombera was the president of the True N'angas Association of Central Africa. He went to consuklt as woman n'anga who specialised in treating high blood pressure cases.

He was known to suffer from high blood pressure and had gone to Goromonzi to see this woman - he failed to see her and collapsed at a bus shelter on his way back to Harare and died on the spot.

However was that the end? My father claimed to have seen him and discussed his 'chemist' some week or so after he died. What did they discuss? We do not know but on hearing that Dr Gombera was dead my father did not believe the story - who did he meet? Was it Dr Gombera's ghost? We will never know!

Strange smells!

Over the last week or so we have been experiencing strange odors in the house. They do not seem to be associated with anything cooking or about the area. What are they?

Sometimes it is food cooking - with nothing on the stove. Sometimes it is a strange perfume that we do not recognise. Sometimes it is coffee brewing. I am sure that the house has a poltergeist. Things disappear and reappear where they should not be and now the smells! Strangely enough everything seems very calm and there is no sense of menace. We have no young children in the house and these phenomenon have only appeared after our children left the home. They are both well grown up. What can be the explanation? Both my husband and myself experience these smells or odors at the same time and the experience is the same.

Any ideas?

A picture from the past.

I wrote some time ago about the lady in red who appeared to my husband and I. I have now found a picture of the lady who appeared to us. Consuelo appears on the right - next to her is Peggy Dexter who was the chair lady of the Birmingham City Ballet in Alabama. Picture was taken about 1956.

Do Ghosts Like Music?

I think they do. A few days ago we were listing to classical music - Rachmaninoff to be precise. i had left the room to go to the kitchen. My husband thought he heard my late father's voice and turned his head to see my father, his own father and a very good friend who passed away some time ago. They were standing and listening to the music! The figures were solid and real. Not wanting to destroy the mood and frighten the figures away he did not call me to see them.

Adrian came to the kitchen to tell me when the music had finished and the apparitions had faded away. He said he had had quite a fright to begin with but then settled down to enjoy not only the music but the company of friends and family.

The story of Lesley

Lesley was a soul mate and her passing so prematurely was a very big blow to me, and to all who knew her - her husband told me the following story - although not in Zimbabwe - Lesley was from here so it is relivent.
This was written by her husband:

Well as you know Lesley passed away on 14th March 2006 and within 48 hr of her death I noticed a small rabbit nibbling the spring leaves off the wild Geranium in the garden. This rabbit stayed for some time in the garden and was quite tame but wild all the same. I got quite close to it and I had this strange feeling of familiarity when looking into its eye.
Last year at about the same time we had another rabbit in the garden which stayed and grew to quite a size before moving on.
We got quite attached as some how we drew comfort in the feeling that this was Lesley in spirit coming back in the form of a rabbit to see how we were.
So this year we waited with bated breath to see what would happen.
Sure enough at about 16th March an adult rabbit came into the garden. "last year's one??" and a short while later we had a young one take up residence and gambolling about on the lawn eating choice weeds growing in the lawn.
As I type this it has been basking in the sun at the edge of the driveway close to the shelter of the hedge as an escape route.
So is this coincidence or just our imaginations playing with us.
Sure we live right on the edge of a meadow and the garden is a safe haven as we don't have any dogs or the like to chase it off.
I leave that for you to decide.
Next year we will not be in residence here as Adam will be in Cardiff, Karen in Southampton and I will be in Cape Town so we will not be here to test the theory.
My feeling is that nature would repeat the sequence.